I wrote recently in response to an article in Evangelicals Now about the supposed problem with empathy. The idea that we have a problem with empathy seems to be particularly driven by an American author, Joe Rigney. He has written a book called “The sin of empathy.” Actually, it’s a lot more complicated than that.… Continue reading Are we really not meant to show compassion sometimes? Part 1 of an engagement with Joe Rigney’s book “The sin of empathy”
Posts
Forgiveness: Can I forgive someone who has not repented?
Here’s my response to a question I’ve seen asked recently.
Getting to the truth about abortion clinic buffer zones
There’s recently been a lot of attention on cases concerning the exclusion zones around clinics. Stories of people being arrested and charged for simply praying silently or holding up signs saying “Here to talk, if you want” have even reached the attention of JD Vance, the US Vice-President who sees them as an example of… Continue reading Getting to the truth about abortion clinic buffer zones
If Donald Trump has called the most important issue facing the World wrongly then where does that leave his Evangelical supporters?
Donald Trump seems committed to a “peace plan” for Ukraine which essentially involves Russia getting to keep much of the territory Putin’s aggression since 2014 has acquired, including Crimea. Charles Moore writes helpfully here about how this proposal compares and is in fact worse than the appeasement deal that Neville Chamberlain signed with Hitler at… Continue reading If Donald Trump has called the most important issue facing the World wrongly then where does that leave his Evangelical supporters?
Why we need a robust political theology in response to assisted dying
The Assisted Dying Bill has completed its committee stage which means that it should soon have its third and final reading in the House of Commons before moving to the House of Lords. There have been various reports on the bill’s committee stage in both the secular and Christian media. This has tended to focus… Continue reading Why we need a robust political theology in response to assisted dying
Why I’m still a Protestant … And why you should be too
Evangelical responses to the death of the Pope have highlighted some confusion about our identity. Being Protestant feels like an anachronistic embarrassment. This perhaps reflects confusion about what the Catholic Church teaches about the Gospel.
Classical Theism and/or a classical worldview?
The concept of classical theism has come up a few times on this blog, particularly in reference to discussion about whether desire is sin, does God the Son submit to the Father and does God have emotions? I tend to refer to recent attempts to promote a so called classical theism as “neo-classical theism” and… Continue reading Classical Theism and/or a classical worldview?
The papal mirror: How Evangelical commentary on the death of Pope Francis tells us more about Evangelicalism than it does about the Pope and Catholicism
What we say and do when someone is dead is more to do with ourselves than it is to do with the deceased, even if we talk in terms of respecting them or their wishes. The things we say in eulogies, obituaries and articles analysing a person’s legacy tend to tell us more about ourselves… Continue reading The papal mirror: How Evangelical commentary on the death of Pope Francis tells us more about Evangelicalism than it does about the Pope and Catholicism
Who is God?
You may notice two things from some recent blog posts. First I’ve been engaging quite a bit with some theological issues specific to the Doctrine of God and also to do with what being human entails. The former has focused on questions to do with whether God has emotions, the latter around sin temptation and… Continue reading Who is God?
Oh thou who changest not: God as pure act and a warning about imported metaphysics
One of the challenges with the EFS debate was the tendency by those critiquing Grudem Ware and others was to get frustrated with their failure to follow classical theist formulations. They would then accuse those who held to EFS of either being in outright heresy or straying into heresy. The problem was that they ignored… Continue reading Oh thou who changest not: God as pure act and a warning about imported metaphysics
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